Nowadays, there are an ever-increasing number of people who enjoy riding all-terrain vehicles and other similar off-road vehicles. In order to further adapt these vehicles to the increasing variety of terrains and surfaces onto which they are ridden, companies have started to offer traction assemblies which can be used to replace the wheels on these vehicles.
Generally, a traction assembly comprises a supporting frame, a sprocket wheel, idler and/or road wheels and an endless elastomeric track disposed therearound and cooperating therewith. By using an endless track instead of a regular tire, a traction assembly generally provides increased floatation and better traction to the vehicle since the ground contacting area, also referred to as the contact patch, of the endless track is generally significantly larger than the contact patch of a regular tire.
In short, the larger ground-contacting area of the endless track effectively spreads the weight of the vehicle over a larger area (i.e. increased floatation) and provides additional ground-engaging surface to the vehicle (i.e. increased traction).
Though the larger contact patch of the endless track of the traction assembly is generally a significant advantage when the vehicle is ridden over soft surfaces such as snow, mud or sand, the larger contact patch can become a hindrance when the vehicle is ridden over harder surfaces such as concrete, asphalt or pavement. Indeed, the larger contact patch generally implies more friction between the track and the ground, making the vehicle more difficult to steer and manoeuvre.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved traction assembly which generally mitigates the aforementioned shortcomings.